Life is beautiful.

The past five days were truly enjoyable.
Day 1 Fri - refer to previous post.

Day 2 Saturday - The Impressionists
THE highlight of my days in Melb so far. Early in the morning, found myself queuing outside the NGV Intl. And that was before it opened. Managed to finally visit the exhibition and it was utterly worth it. There're many bombastic words I could use to describe what I saw. The Impressionists has 91 paintings by mainly French artists from the 1870s to 1890s. This exhibition's paintings mostly came from the Musee d'Orsay in France.

There were special ones which gave me goosebumps and tingles in my flesh. Sounds dramatic eh? Simply because I was awestruck at their works. "Amazing" does not adequately describe the quality of those works. Some of the paintings (my faves are further down):

• 8 Monets , including one from his reknowned "Haystacks" series and Gare Saint Lazare (too bad none were from the Water Lilies..)
• 2 Van Gogh incl "Starry night over the Rhone" which was really mesmerizing. One of the main attractions.
• Pierre Auguste Renoir incl Young Woman with a Veil, Madame Georges Charpentier and Claude Monet painting
• Edouard Manet's The Balcony (he had many others)
• Frederic Bazille's Family Reunion - From near it looked really somber and intimidating. The painting was large, measuring at least 5*5 feet. From far, the magnificence of it really shone through.
• Paul Cezanne's incl Apple and Oranges

Plus many more by John Russell, Berthe Morisot, Camille Pissarro, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Paul Gauguin, Pierre Puvis de Chanvannes, Sisley, Eva Gonzalez, Henri Fantin-Latour etc..

The ones which captivated me were:

• Edward Degas's "The Orchestra of The Opera". Really that was incredibly stunning. Prints of this work do not give justice to this amazing piece of work. I revisited the painting twice before I left the NGV. There was another Degas piece, but this was my absolute favourite..
• James Tissot's "The Ball". It shows a lady with a beautiful yellow dress with her back to the picture. The detail on the dress, esp the ruffles were unbelievable. Many people were simply admiring his technique. I can never look at prints the same way now.
• Stanislas Lepine's "Montmarte, rue Saint-Vincent". His ultra realistic potrayal of sunlight was a wonder. A simple painting of a narrow street with 3 peasant women. I caught myself doing a double take when I saw the painting, thought it was the lighting giving the sunlight in the painting that realistic effect but I was mistaken, and I wasn't the only one who thought my eyes were playing tricks on me. Everyone was simply staring at it and doing a double take. It really was the greatness of his technique and brushwork that made the sunlight so real..
• Poppies - (If not mistaken its by Fantin Latour?) This's another amazing work. As I approached it from the side, I caught myself again. This time, the flowers looked soooo real. It almost looked 3D from where I stood. From near, it was simply amazing (a very overused word in my vocab now)

There're more paintings which struck my fancy but my mind's in slow motion by now, so maybe I'll add them later.. The exhibition was well worth it, and I could imagine what a waste it would have been if I'd miss it. For sure, in the near future, I don't envision having the opportunity to see such stuff in KL...next up - Man Ray! (I'll prob go in the next few weeks)...

Day2 did not end just like that. We truly made use of our Metcard by going to SOoo many places on Sat. Basically Malaysians' lives revolve around food. and more food. Hahha Msians will understand what I'm talking about. We ended taking trams, trains and buses in our endless pursuit of good meals, crisscrossing Zone 1 and Zone 2 on a tiring day..

Day3-5 to be continued....I'm too tired to type now..